Posted on 06/15/2010 2:37:24 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
NEW ORLEANS – Scientists provided a new estimate for the size of the Gulf oil spill on Tuesday that indicates it could be worse than previously thought.
A government panel of scientists said that the ruptured well is leaking between 1.47 million and 2.52 million gallons a day of oil. That is an increase over previous estimates that put the maximum size of the spill at 2.1 million gallons per day.
"This estimate brings together several scientific methodologies and the latest information from the sea floor, and represents a significant step forward in our effort to put a number on the oil that is escaping from BP's well," Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in a statement.
The latest numbers reflect an increase in the flow that scientists believe happened after undersea robots earlier this month cut off a kinked pipe near the sea floor that was believed to be restricting the flow of oil, just as a bend in a garden hose reduces water flow. BP officials has estimated that cutting the kinked pipe likely increased the flow by up 20 percent.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Heckuva job, Barry!
And who says we can’t get much more energy from offshore?
This sounds like one damn big well!
Huh? Increase? Huh? What? Read that again. Huh?
Just in time for POtuS Big Adventure tonight.
From 1,000 per day to 20,000 per day to up to 60,000 per day to 2.5 million a day. See the pattern here? It keeps going up!
Was that an oil engineer? Whatever an “oil engineer” is.
Every other day, they pull a new number out of their a$$.
can you link the thread/post this is on?
thanks
Aren’t you full of good news! :( This oil thing is beginning to freak me out. Maybe a collapse will close it off!
Apparently they don’t thing we can handle the truth and they are using some sort of incremental method in releasing the true figures. Kinda scary!
Why do they measure the leak in gallons and the recovered oil in barrels?
The reason why there is a 1 million gallon (or approximately 20,000 barrel) difference between the high and the low estimates is because there is so much natural gas in the formation, the flow has been extremely inconsistent. If you look at the actual figures BP is producing, they are recovering about 18,000 barrels of oil and water emulsion, and flaring off several million cubic feet of gas. As the gas rises it expands many times in volume and it directly effects how much oil can make it up the pipe to the surface.
The gas in this reserve is what has troubled this well from the very start. I recall reading that one of the reasons why the concrete seals failed is because there was likely bits of liquid methane that leaked into the concrete when it was being set, and as the concrete cured and heated up, the gas expanded and forced the concrete particles apart, ruining the seal. I’m not sure there is anything to be done about that once that happens except to immediately move to plug the well, but it’s clear they didn’t do that.
It’s a shame they have to flare that gas off instead of trying to capture it for resale but under these extreme circumstances there is nothing else to be done.
As I write this the new estimate of flow is 35,000 to 60,000 barrels per day...
This is the question I just asked before seeing your post. Can anyone tell me how many gallons are in a barrel?
Want your name in the news? Top the previous doomsayer.
@ 55 gallons in a barrel
Oil is measured at 42 gal/barrel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrel
“Oil has not actually been shipped in barrels [1] since the introduction of oil tankers, but the 42-US-gallon size is still used as a unit for measurement, pricing, and in tax and regulatory codes. Each barrel is refined into about 19.74 US gallons (16.44 imp gal; 74.7 L) of gasoline[2], the rest becoming other products such as jet fuel and heating oil, using fractional distillation.[3]
The current standard volume for barrels for chemicals and food is 55 US gallons (46 imp gal; 208 L).”
It’s 42 gallons per barrel, different than the 55 gal. oil drum sitting in the garage.
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